78 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



natives, do not probably occur in such consider- 

 able numbers as materially to affect the popu- 

 lation of the country ; and the diseases, though 

 they have been dreadfully increased by European 

 contact, were before peculiarly lenient ; and, even 

 for some time afterwards, were not marked by 

 any extraordinary fatality.* 



The great checks to increase appear to be the 

 vices of promiscuous intercourse, infanticide, and 

 war, each of these operating with very consi- 

 derable force. Yet, powerful in the prevention 

 and destruction of life as these causes must be, 

 they have not always kept down the population 

 to the level of the means of subsistence. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Anderson, " Notwithstandng the ex- 

 " treme fertility of the island, a famine frequently 

 " happens, in which it is said many perish. 

 * Whether this be owing to the failure of some 

 " seasons, to over-population, (which must some- 

 " times almost necessarily happen,) or wars, I 

 " have not been able to determine ; though the 

 " truth of the fact may fairly be inferred from the 

 " great economy that they observe with respect 

 " to their food, even when there is plenty."! Af- 

 ter a dinner with a chief at Ulietea, Captain Cook 

 observed, that when the company rose, many of 

 the common people rushed in, to pick up the 

 crumbs which had fallen, and for which they 

 searched the leaves very narrowly. Several of 

 them daily attended the ships, and assisted the 



* Cook's Third Voy, vol. ii. p. 148. 

 t W. p. 153, l.">4. 



